Analysis

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Analysis

Pattern comparison

Reviewing 3 patterns.

Criteria
structuralFlyweightView pattern
structuralProxyView pattern
behavioralVisitorView pattern
Basics
Categorystructuralstructuralbehavioral
Summary———
IntentUse sharing to support large numbers of fine-grained objects efficiently by separating shared intrinsic state from per-object extrinsic state.Provide a surrogate or placeholder for another object to control access to it.Separate an algorithm from the object structure it operates on by moving behavior into visitor objects.
Decision factors
ProblemA system creates a large number of similar objects, but storing all of their state separately uses too much memory.A client needs to interact with an object indirectly because the real object may be expensive, sensitive, or remote.You need to perform operations across a set of different object types without stuffing all the logic into the objects themselves.
Tradeoffs
  • Adds complexity because state must be split into shared and unshared parts
  • Can be harder to understand when many objects depend on an external context
  • Adds another layer of indirection
  • Can make the design more complex when the extra control is unnecessary
  • Requires updating the visitor interface when new element types are added
  • Can be awkward if the object structure changes often
Practical fit
Languages
  • typescript
  • java
  • python
  • angular
  • react
  • react-native
  • csharp
  • dotnet
  • typescript
  • java
  • python
  • angular
  • react
  • react-native
  • csharp
  • dotnet
  • typescript
  • java
  • python
  • angular
  • react
  • react-native
  • csharp
  • dotnet
Platforms
  • Web
  • Backend
  • Mobile
  • UI kits
  • Cross-platform systems
  • Web
  • Backend
  • Mobile
  • UI kits
  • Cross-platform systems
  • Web
  • Backend
  • Mobile
  • UI kits
  • Cross-platform systems
Integration notesFlyweight is useful when thousands or millions of similar objects need to be represented efficiently, such as trees, glyphs, tiles, or UI tokens.Proxy is useful for lazy loading, access control, caching, logging, and remote service wrappers.Visitor is useful for AST processing, reporting, cart calculations, and exporting object structures to alternate formats.